Academic Challenge

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Pine Ridge Middle School had a competitive team go undefeated last year, but you may not know about them: The Academic Challenge Team.

In academic challenge, each team answers questions in competitions with other schools. These teams compete in their local areas, and if their record qualifies them, they advance to the state tournament.

The team was chosen at the beginning of the year by Ms. Locklair and they practice for the competition each morning in her STING class. They were chosen according to how they did on a few standardized tests and the competition questions they had last year. Ms. Locklair said she wanted to have everybody from last year’s 7th grade team return because they were undefeated last year. “It will be fantastic to see our 8th graders again”, she said. They will have their first match the third week of January.

Most of last year’s 7th graders returned to the team this year. Eighth grader Marley Stewart said she felt that the new 7th grade team should be able to help PRMS make it to the state tournament. “A lot of them were too scared to answer questions, but now they’re starting to answer.” Stewart said sometimes the teams practice together, but other times the 7th and 8th graders compete against each other. (The 8th grade usually wins.) She said the best part of it for her was competing with other students.